Of Pastures Greener
by J'oublie m'appelle
Summary: “I don’t know about you Piper, but the Storm Hawks are the best thing that ever happened to me, and I am not,” he crossed his arms, “gonna stand around and play ‘what if.’” Finn looked determinedly over to the girl in question. Piper/Finn friendship fic.


Author's Notes: And so it begins…this thing actually began as a 400 word drabble but quickly spiralled out of control, I blame rabid plot bunnies. This will be the first of what at this stage will be three chapters, though heaven knows what it may decide to do with itself.

Please leave a review and provide me with some constructive feedback! This is the first fic I've written for this fandom so I'd like to know how I'm doing. No beta either unfortunately, so all mistakes are mine.

Disclaimer: I don't own Storm Hawks, that privilege goes to Asaph Fipke and Nerd Corps…curse them…

…---…

Of Pastures Greener

A Storm Hawks Fanfiction

By Birdie from J'oublie m'appelle

…---…

"I… don't know," Piper said honestly, her eye-brows burrowed in thought as she pondered out Finn's question. "I don't know what I'd do." Her voice was full of the same pensive tone her face portrayed as she leant back on the crate she was resting on, the hangar around the two filled with similar objects.

"'Cos your parents're out there too aren't they?" Finn asked almost guiltily, rubbing his hands together in a show of unusual solemnity, the small gesture giving away the awkwardness he found in the conversation, though he had instigated it.

Finn looked up from his hands to the girl sitting across from him and worriedly bit down on his bottom lip, wondering why he'd decided to bring the topic up in conversation.

…---…

It'd all started out simple enough. The two Storm Hawks had been assigned to categorise the new shipments of supplies they'd just received. Finn had been the labour while Piper directed him, though after an hour he'd whinely demanded a rest and plopped eagle-spread into a pile of packing straw, a cloud of which had erupted with a comic 'poof' before coming back down to fall all over him. Piper had just rolled her eyes before sitting down on a nearby crate, checking over the supply list for what they still had to pack

So really it was no wonder why she'd missed the marksman's arm sneaking its way over to her ankle before she was too was pulled into the stack of straw. An undignified squeak had escaped her before she'd recovered her senses to find Finn laughing at her.

"Finn…" she'd growled dangerously, staring at him with daggers in her eyes. The game was on.

In the end, however, the two had slipped into an unusual show of camaraderie and comfortability with each other that they normally didn't possess. So, after sweeping and repacking the straw -twice (seeing as the first time Finn had taken it as a chance to try and stuff it down the back of her shirt) they'd fallen to more thoughtful ground in the way of conversation.

What had started as a lethargic 'discussion' (argument) over tastes in music had eventually dissolved into what their opinions about the rest of the crew (Aerrow seriously needs to make Radarr bathe more often!) and enemies consisted of, and finally, their pasts. Life stories weren't something that had ever actively been shared amongst the Storm Hawks crew, where living in the moment seemed to be their motto and their reasons for staying were each other and their passions.

…---…

Piper nodded and sighed. "If they found me now, well, I really don't know what I'd do." Piper's face resembled that of a lost little girl as she continued. "I think- I think first of all I'd have to ask them why. I mean, what was bad enough to abandon your kid at an orphanage before you even really knew them?" There was a sigh.

"But beyond that," A more determined look struck her face as she turned to face out the open hangar doors, "Beyond that I don't think I want to know them.

"I mean, why would they come back now? Because I'm a Storm Hawk? Because I'm a crystal expert?" She stressed the second last word, becoming more riled up as she progressed, the familiar expression of self-righteousness and large hand gestures emanating her frustration.

"You know Finn, there are times when I look down at the terras and wonder 'Are they down there?' because I really don't know." The sky outside the hangar doors was bare, no sign of life outside the Condor. "More often though I think 'Do they now it's me who's out there defending the land from Cyclonia?' 'Do they know it's their little girl who they left without a name designing that new crystal?'

'Do they-" she stopped to clear her throat. "'Do they _care_ that I'm out here risking my life daily for the safety of people like them?'

"Because it's easier not to know, when you already know that the only ones who care about your safety are right next to you and ready to help."

The intensity that her voice had held had all but dripped away and she slumped from the crate she was leaning on to the floor. Resting her head against the crate she pulled her legs up so her feet were flat on the floor and draped her long arms over each other while resting them on her left knee.

"If there were people down there that worried about me, I don't think I'd be up here." She finished quietly, "you know?" Her spent demeanour giving way to a new sense of calm and relief. "What about you?"

The question made Finn stop. Honestly, he'd never really thought about it too hard. He'd lived most of his young life with a 'no regrets' policy, so he didn't often think about what had never been there. With the tables turned however, and with Piper to confide in (Piper! As if the two ever them ever gotten along before!), he could almost feel the weight of childhood insecurities coming back to bite him.

"I dunno," Finn said airily, giving a shrug and looking away, his normal 'party dude' façade falling back into place. "If I met 'em now-" he paused for a moment and Piper could swear that she saw the emotional barriers fall into place.

"Aw hey, whats'it even matter?" Finn began again with a strained sense of folly in his voice, moving around the small area he and Piper occupied sporadically. His hand gestures had gotten bigger and he was desperately trying to keep the normal air around him strong.

"I mean, come on Piper, we're the Storm Hawks! We don't need parents! Could you imagine it? I mean, what could they do? We're all up here and doing things that other people could only ever dream of.

"We don't need ANYTHING_._"

Finn paused in his ranting to catch his breath. "I don't know about you Piper, but the Storm Hawks are the best thing that ever happened to me, and I am _not_," he crossed his arms, "gonna stand around and play 'what if.'" Satisfied with his comment he dropped like a stone in a cross-legged position, arms still firmly folded across his chest.

Tilting her head slightly to see the archer better Piper couldn't help the small smile that appeared on her lips.

"The Storm Hawks are my life too Finn, and I wouldn't change you guys for the world." She let a slight silence sink in so he could digest her words. "That doesn't make it wrong to wonder about other paths of life though." She looked at him from her tilted vantage point.

"So," she said again, "do you ever think about them?" It seemed as though time froze for a moment, neither moving a muscle before Finn let out a sigh between his teeth.

"Yeah," Finn's posture slowly relaxed so that it was nearly mimicking Piper's, the only difference that his right leg lay out flat on the ground, the shoe at the end provided a distraction for the sharpshooter.

"My parents left me when I was two 'parently. Just showed up on the orphanage's front step with a note saying I was called Finn and could they please take care of me." He scoffed as he looked up to meet Piper's eyes. "Like it was some kind of deluxe babysitting service or something.

"I mean, come on, it's not like I'm THAT big of a whiner that I should just be dumped some-where 'cos they got tired of me right?" Finn moved one of his arms so he could scratch his neck.

"Ya know," he moved his hand so he was pointing a knowing finger at Piper. "I bet if they knew how awesome I was gonna turn out they woulda kept me 'round, just for the coolness factor if nothin' else."

Piper snorted good-naturedly at Finn's ego and rolled her head to look at the ceiling of the hangar, tracing patterns in the steelwork (and Stork's traps) before she heard the 'tap-tap' of approaching boots. Too light to be Junko, and too sure to be Stork.

_Aerrow._

Finn's head whipped to face hers simultaneously and the same thought was obviously going through his head.

'We're not even close to finished.'

The two scrambled upright and Piper quickly searched for her clipboard, Finn brushing the last of the straw off his uniform before hurrying to the box they'd been halfway through unpacking before they stopped.

The fact that their commander was coming wasn't what spurred the two into action, but rather that they wanted their conversation to remain private for a while, or at least until they had time to discuss the topic more publicly with the team. The team was one big family and it would get out eventually, but for now the complacent feeling was still around and it was nice to be at ease with the other in the room and on the same wavelength.

The two traded one last smile and Piper gave Finn a secretive wink before clearing her throat. Finn took the cue and had just lifted out the next parcel before Piper declared:

"That one needs to go with the other skimmer parts- second pile from the right."

…---…

The two Storm Hawks waiting for the footsteps to fade to nothing before letting out relieved sigh. Aerrow was nothing if not thorough, and so really they should have expected the visit. They were supposed to have finished the job half-an-hour ago, and under normal circumstances it was not the realm of belief that one or both of them may have given up on the job for having to spend time in the others company.

Piper moved over to the next box and started sifting through its contents while Finn staring blankly out the hangar doors, words from their conversation only minutes earlier coming back to him.

"_I really don't know what I'd do."_

"_Why would they come back now?"_

"_If they knew how awesome I was gonna turn out they woulda kept me 'round."_

"_The Storm Hawks are the best thing that ever happened to me."_

"_The Storm Hawks are my life." _

"_I wouldn't change you guys for the world."_

Finn spared one shared smile with Piper before diving back into his crate, the wheels in his head spinning at phenomenal speeds. There was a mystery going on here, of pasts unknown and untold, but Finn was determined to solve it.

A breeze raced in from the hangar doors and a slight chill rose on the back of Finn's neck. The sky outside stretched on endlessly, whipped by the slightly chilly wind that was always apparent in Atmos.

Finn couldn't help but look down to the terra they were still docked at and what lay beyond: terras stretching into the distant and the cloud lines.

"_If there were people down there that worried about me, I don't think I'd be up here."_

Piper's words came back to haunt him and he turned to look to the passage that Aerrow had disappeared into. There were secrets here, but Finn would find out.

They were all a family after all, and family doesn't keep secrets.

…---…

Author's Notes: And so Chapter One is finished. Please use that button conveniently located at the bottom of your screen to tell me what you think! Chapter two should hopefully be up sometime next week.

~Birdie~


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